Van Gaal moved a step closer to the sack following his side’s 2-1 defeat at Sunderland last Saturday, but Rooney has claimed that the United players and not their manager should be blamed for their poor displays in recent months.

"The manager has taken a lot of stick for some performances. It’s down to us, we’re players and we have to perform," states Rooney.

"It’s a very good group of players. At times it’s been frustrating for us as we’ve under-performed.

"We’ve probably got off quite lightly and the manager has taken a lot of it, but we’re going on the pitch. We have to create chances and win games and we haven’t done that enough this season.”

Rooney has now challenged the United players to salvage their season by achieving success in the Europa League or the FA Cup.

"The important thing now, I feel, is to win trophies again this season,” he added. “It’s been a few years since we won a trophy.

“This is more or less a new team so for ourselves, as a team, we need to win something. The fans want to see us win something again.

“Obviously the Champions League is massive for this club and it was disappointing to go out of it.

“We’ll keep going in the league, keep trying. But our main aim has to be to make sure we can get in that top four.

“Then the Europa League, it would be great if we can win that. It’s not where we wanted to be at the start of the season, but it’s where we’ve found ourselves so why not go and try to win it.”